Chapter 51-60

Chapter 51
One moment they were walking down a trail through a forest, the next the tall pine trees opened and behind a line of thin saplings and thick bushes, small buildings seemed to just appear out of the forest—structures that, at first glance might be a fallen log, or a stack of broken branches. But were, in fact, a thick slab of bark from a massive tree to form a sloping roof, or a thick layer of branches used to insulate a wall.

Sasha blinked and swallowed and tried to make herself see, because unless she focused on something, it seemed to disappear into the forest in her peripheral vision.

They had entered a large clearing. Almost a clearing.

The trunks of massive trees were peppered around the space, still rooted and tall—but becoming the pillars of a shelter, or one side of a wall. The tops of the trees had been removed so there was more light—which was why it had the feeling of a clearing. When Sasha looked up, there were no branches blocking her view of the sky. And yet… and yet everything around her looked like it had grown there.

Sasha was fascinated. Some of the structures were easily as big as her apartment back in the city. How had they made these places with no straight lines, and with only natural resources, so that they blended so perfectly with their surroundings?

She turned to Zev, smiling, but her stomach went cold. His face was somber and tight. He was watching the people that were congregating at the center of this area, pouring out of the structures—some even leaping from within the branches of the surrounding trees—to flow into a crowd that continued to grow and grow.

She heard Zev’s name more than once, but it echoed over barks, coughs, growls and calls as the people in front of her—all male as far as she could tell—stood, their mouths wide and heads thrown back as they called to the sky.